Chapter 54

I was still thinking of what my dad had said the next morning as I had my coffee with eggs and toast. And I did realize something, I was indeed living as if I was living off of what I was making every month. After I washed the dishes I put on my jacket and walked up the hill.

Dee answered the door and asked me to come in. Thankfully she had more coffee, and after taking another cup we were sitting at the table when George came up and gave me a hug. He asked if he could walk down the hill, and Dee said he could. “But you come right back if Aunt Kim says it is not a good time, no arguments!” He agreed and headed off, and I smiled.

“So, letting him go out on his own?”

“Well, as far as the big house. So, are you excited about the game tomorrow night?”

“Yes, in a way. Let me ask you something, how much am I worth, Dee?”

“OK, I know this came from your dad. Do you want to know how much you personally, or how much everything is?”

“Is there a difference?”

“Hmm, most times there is not. Personally? Maybe two hundred thousand or so. Of course, that is based on your personal assets and income, which I always keep apart. The rest, around $20 million the last I checked.”

I whistled as she grinned. “And that is a guess, because we are starting to prepare for taxes next year. We try to keep a limited amount in hard cash, which is why this call center is going to be good. We can liquidate a lot of the excess cash, and it will offset the tax burden. And the constant upgrades are letting us amortize expenses and carry them to future times, which means...”

I held up my hand, and she grinned. “You did not know this Pete, but my minor in college was in accounting. I figured it would come in handy, say if I went into more investigative journalism. But I went into first writing for an architectural journal, then the gaming industry, and now computers so it has never mattered. But why do you think I have loved being your personal accountant and running the back office part of your business? It lets me finally put that to use, and I like to think I have helped you grow your money. But your dad is right, you should never worry about it. If the economy was to completely tank like in 1929 all over again, you could walk away from everything and live here without a care in the world. Or you could live almost anywhere you want outside of say Manhattan.”

I actually felt a bit relieved and terrified to hear this from Dee. I asked her how that was even possible. “Oh, it’s quite simple really. Your dad was raised by farmers that lived through the Depression, and you both lived right here when this was still a working farm. Heck, your dad was making close to six figures as a technician, and your mom was making in the upper five figures as a paralegal. Yet your mom still used to raise chickens and have a vegetable garden. I don’t think you ever realized how much your dad or mom made, it was a lot. And a lot of that he just stuck into his company stock plan. When he told me that he was having a house built here I told him he was crazy, we could never afford that. Then he told me how many shares he had, and last year I had him cash them all out. You and your dad are both like that, if it’s not cash in your pocket, you do not seem to think of it as real. Your house, you just think of it as a house. Me, I see almost $50,000 in hard assets without a mortgage.”

“Dee, my house is worth nowhere near that much!” I protested.

“Oh yes, it is. Because if you were to parcel it off it would have what, two acres of land to go with it? Three? From the west fence to the road in front, all the way to the highway and the bottom of the hill. Brand new, four bedrooms and a full basement, three car garage. $50,000 easy. If you go to any bank in the country and say you want a $40,000 loan with that as collateral, they will not even blink. That worthless land by the freeway? That has gone from maybe $15,000 in value to over $150,000 in the last year and a half. Because it is now developed and has buildings on it that greatly increased the value. And even better, you helped plan for future expansions, so they look like it was built that way. Every quarter one of the professors at the University brings his students there to examine it. He said it is a ‘great combination of efficiency, organic growth, and future planning’. Those are his own words by the way.”

I shook my head, and she reached out and took my hand in hers. “Pete, what I love about both you and your dad is that you never lived as if you had money. You buy used vehicles, find great deals on land, and then put them to use. You are not investing, buying mini-malls, and trying to make money off of rent, you are working them yourself. In LA, somebody would take that lot and put something on it and collect rent. You use it yourself. But I also see a trend in what you are buying.”

I looked at her and raised my eyebrow, and she nodded. “Did you know the only place you rent is your original store? All the rest, all of it you own. Now think about this, if you had heard that the entire mall was available before you had expanded to the airport, would you have bought it and used that? Or still make the move to a second location?”

“Wow, good question. I guess I might have bought it, but that would have meant kicking out stores to have the room needed. Orbit Communications now uses more actual floor space than the entire mall if included with my original store. So I probably would never have done that, they would then have been made to suffer just so I could expand.”

“I know. You consider things like that, even if you do not realize it. But if all the stores were vacant?” I nodded and admitted I might then have just bought the place. “But not if it meant other people lose their businesses. As I said, you think about that, a lot of people would have just bought it, and to hell with anybody else. You think of others, almost to a fault. But your dad is right, we have all talked about this in the last year or so. Do not invest any more in LA unless you need it, it is very volatile. What I see there is a bubble growing, and someday it is going to pop. I give it another ten years, and I bet values will crash. We are already seeing it now, you know Silicon Valley is now seeing up to 35% vacancy in some buildings? Some that were built with 40% leased when construction began in 1989 are now 100% vacant. Businesses closing left and right, this recession. And it’s funny, foreclosures are going up, and home prices are still the same in LA. And rents are actually going up. That is a bubble, things being sold for more than they are worth. Right now we are seeing it in commercial and retail, but eventually, it will reach housing. Right now, it is floating on rentals, but ownership is actually going down. The house you live in, it is actually worth almost 50% more than your dad paid for it. That’s a bubble. It is not really worth that much, but where it is makes it valuable.”

I nodded and could see what she was saying. “But if you want, how about this? I have been putting all of your money from the company into the company bank account, do you want me to stop? If I put your pension and royalties into your bank account, then you might have a better idea. And if anything, I want to give you a raise. We do need to do that, it makes the books all funny when the CEO takes no money from his businesses. Take that money, take a vacation. Hell, have you even had a vacation since 1987? And no Pete, coming up here for a week or so does not count because even then you end up working. Take a few weeks, take a month or so. Travel, relax, I worry because you work so hard. Even this is not a vacation, you are going to be working all weekend, then driving back to LA and going right back to work. You need to take more time off Pete, I worry about you. I would say it is greed, but I have a feeling it is more to keep you doing something. But baby, spending time for yourself is also doing something. Do that.”

I moved over and knelt on the floor, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my head on her chest, and nodded. “You’re right, and I find it hard. I just have so many things I want to do, and find it hard to just do nothing.”

“You have to do that sometimes, we all do. Start taking that time, find a girlfriend, give your father grandchildren. You know, he sometimes worries that you are going to become a permanent bachelor. You have been hurt so many times, he worries if any girl will be right for you anymore.”

I stood and kissed her forehead, and smiled. “Oh no, I want that also. I just have not found her yet is all. There are only two women I ever really thought of marrying, and that was Linda and Becky. And both are out of the question.”

“Are they?”

I sighed softly and nodded. “Linda, I would never be able to put what had happened from my mind. Not what she has been doing, but how she treated me because she started when we were together. I could never trust her again, and that would make for a horrible marriage. Becky really loves Taylor, and I will never get in the way of that. Plus, I can not stay in LA much longer. Hell, each time I come up here it becomes harder to go back there. I’m almost afraid someday I will come up here, and say to hell with it and stay.”

“Well, you can afford that, you know. Julie already runs your store, promote or hire somebody to run Orbit Communications and then just retire up here and live off of that. Heck, you know most of your businesses run themselves, right? You are now more of what we call an ‘Angel Investor’ and advisor now. Oh, you got Gem off the ground, same as Hainji Net. But now, we all keep on going and only look to you for guidance. That is how Apple started. A guy came in with a suitcase full of money, gave them the cash to get started and advice in setting it all up, then sat back and made money when they did. Heck, you only really started Gem because Jeff wanted a job, and you made one for him. He, Morgan, and the rest are now running with it. Your concept, your ideas, but they are doing the work and you are making money from it.”

And the thing is, I realized she was right. I got it started, but it was all their show now. Maybe it would be a good idea if I did just that. Take some time off in the spring. Come up here with the bike, load it behind the RV and just take some time to travel. Heck, maybe even invite somebody to go with me. No idea who, but I had months to think about that.

I gave Dee a hug and kissed her cheek, and headed on to the casino. There were a few hundred people inside already, and I met with Kent and he told me the attendance numbers. He was actually proud this was the largest one in the region outside of Portland and Seattle. Even bigger than the ones in Salt Lake and Boise. And when I was in the sales area I saw that many of the vendors in there were from Boise, Salt Lake, even one from Portland and Billings.

I saw Becky even had a stall, and gave her a hug as I looked at what she had laid out. Mike was there also, and they had three tables full of adventures they were selling. And part set aside promoting her own services. I went ahead and took out a pen and signed inside all of the adventures I had written, and she smiled and said it was almost like old times. And I had to agree, it almost was.

I then worked my way around and saw that several were selling my stuff and grinned. I then wandered the floor and saw in the media room they were playing the tape of the Yellow Journalism presentation. Steve had indeed paid to have it edited, and I could see many were watching it with interest. I went ahead and headed over to the theater, where I met the stooge for the next night. Her name was Glenda, and she was a student at the local college. Karen is the one that suggested her, so we sat down and I filled her in on what to expect.

This time I had decided to have the humans do it. And in essence she decided that her support would be a cell of revolutionaries that wanted to not just take over, but drive out all of the “aliens” that had taken over. I grinned and said that was a good one, and we went over what kind of support she would have.

It was getting towards evening and I was walking the floor again when I heard a voice behind me ask if I wanted to try having the drink this time. I turned around, and it was the redhead from the last convention. Her smile was still great, and her figure just as lush as it had been the last time I saw her.

“I see your date is not here this time,” she said. “Did she stand you up, Pete?”

I shook my head and said she was only a friend, but had been my guest at the convention. And that I was indeed here alone. “But I must admit, you have the better of me. You know my name, and I don’t know yours.”

“Well, it’s Eileen. And no, I am not stalking you, Pete. I work for Pericles Distribution, we are one of the biggest game wholesalers on the west coast.”

“OK, I know who you are, you are one of my main suppliers actually.” I told her the name of my store, and she smiled and nodded. “OK, I know you then in another way. Small place, Burbank. More dice and supplies than modules.”

I nodded and said a lot of the modules were actually provided by Becky. Eileen even admitted she had talked with Becky earlier, and Becky was considering having them be a distributor for her. I said that would be good as it meant more money for me, and she gave a delightful laugh.

“So is that why you are here?” I asked.

“Oh, partly. We have a 15 foot box truck filled with things we often sell, and we normally sell most of them. Much of it is things we want to get rid of that has been in the warehouse too long. Older edition books and modules, second revision board games on their forth revision, things like that. We bring vendors out there and sell right from the back of the truck by the box. Lets us get rid of them, and they get a discount and no shipping. Plus it lets us see what people want, and what they like and do not like.”

We started talking, and I found out she was actually based out of Las Vegas. Her company had two warehouses, and she worked in their West Coast one. She spent most of her time in the warehouse, but she also worked with a guy who she would go out with during conventions to either try and get more stores to buy from them, or sell excess inventory to. Now I understood why some vendors had large inventories of older adventures and game systems. They bought them in bulk at conventions like this from Eileen.

I asked her how she liked it, and she said the travel could be fun. “About once a month on average we head out somewhere. Seattle, LA, El Paso, Denver, San Diego, but this is only our second time here in Idaho. And a few of the vendors are new to us, and we have unloaded about half of what we brought up with us so far.” She then grinned and asked me if my girlfriend was up here with me.

“Oh, Amber is not my girlfriend. She is just a friend I had invited with me because she had never been to a game convention before. We are friends, but she is not interested in me like that.”

“That’s too bad for you, she is a cutie.”

I smiled and nodded, and simply said I was not the kind of person she was interested in. I saw Eileen cock her head to the side, and I simply said that both Amber and I had admired how she had looked when we met at the last convention.

“Hmm, it’s too bad you said she is not into conventions, or I might even try to look her up if I had a chance. It’s flattering to know she seems to have found me as appealing as I found her.” I laughed, and she blushed just a little bit and nodded.

“Why is it that about half of the women I meet tend to be either lesbians, or swing both ways?” I said melodramatically to the ceiling.

“Oh, that’s rather simple. All the heterosexual gals are mostly taken, and those of us that are left tend to prefer keeping our options open. Makes it easier to find a date on a Saturday night that way.” I laughed and said she did have a point there. I then asked her if it worked.

“Well, it’s Friday now, so ask me Sunday morning. If we meet here, then it likely did not work. If you nudge me awake and bring me a cup of coffee, it worked.” Surprised at her boldness and such an open attempt, I looked directly into her eyes. She returned the look, with a half-smile. “Pete, let’s just say I see no reason to beat around the bush. I’m not really a slut, but a couple of times a year on these trips I find somebody that catches my interest. You, I have actually been watching you since I was around 16.”

“Wow, 16? When was that, may I ask?”

“Oh, 1987. I saw you with Kaos and Amanda Carol, and to be honest I thought all three of you were hot. I got to know Mandy later on, we often talked at conventions before she pretty much retired. We even flirted a bit a few times, but she had a boyfriend so it was never more than flirting. But back on my wall at home, I have some framed drawings she made for me. One of them has me topless, or at least how she imagined I looked topless at the time. It’s quite flattering, if not entirely accurate.” She grinned at me, and I grinned in return.

I looked at my watch and saw it was just after 6. She saw me looking and asked if I had a date to get to. “Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to join me for dinner, as it is a bit early for me to be drinking on an empty stomach. Would you care to join me, Eileen?”

She smiled shyly and nodded. Almost like a little girl, and I did some fast math and realized she was 21. And she certainly was a well put together 21. I held out my arm, and she took it in her hand and I started to head toward the exit. I think I surprised her when instead of heading towards the restaurant inside the main casino, I headed for the parking lot. “Where are you taking me?”

“Well, the buffet here is not all that great, and I really want a steak. We have a good steakhouse across town, I was hoping you would like to join me there.” She smiled and nodded, and smiled when I held her door open for her. I then got in and after starting the car and waiting for it to warm up she said she was surprised to see me here, even though she should not be.

“I have all of your taped presentations I think, and you talked more than once about being from Pocatello. Yet somehow I was still surprised to see you here tonight.”

“Well, this will be my second presentation up here. And yes, I actually grew up just a few miles from here. I am based out of LA now though. But I have businesses that keep me coming up here every month or so. In fact, look off to the left there.” We were passing Hainji Net and Gem Computers, and I pointed out that was part of the businesses I run.

“Hainji Net, like do you also do GamerNet?”

“Yep, I started that a few years ago. But that was back when I still only had a single computer shop and ran a simple BBS in my spare time.”

She laughed and said she was a member of a BBS in Las Vegas, and had no idea. “I mean, I have seen you in there of course, I follow your threads regularly. But I did not know you created it.”

“Well, in those I only use my real name in the threads about my adventures. But if you look in some others, I normally use the handle ‘Fairbough’. That was one of my first characters from when I first started playing, and I still use the name.”

“OK, I’ve seen you then also but had no idea that was you. Me, I’m ‘Eileen’ there also, and I use a few other names on other boards.” I grinned and asked her if I would know of any, and she shook her head. “Oh no, none of the others are game related.” I then tossed out a few of the Echo services I knew of, and she did take a look at me twice when I mentioned AdultNet. And when I prompted, she had me laughing when she said her name there was “ComeOn_Eileen”.

I laughed and said at least she spelled it with an “O” and not a “U”. She giggled, and we were pulling into the parking lot of the Ponderosa Steakhouse. “And yeah, I have had people say things like that to me more than once. It kind of sucks when your parents pick out a name, not knowing what may come out in the future that uses it.”

We got a table, and after ordering I had them bring us each a beer. Then of course Eileen started to really ask me about what all I did, and I think it surprised her that for most of the last eight years I had been involved in computers. “When I got out of the Marines, that was really all I knew, so I took the money I had saved and started a store selling used computers. And everything since then kind of grew out of that.”

“That’s rather impressive, I have to admit. Computers, BBS networks, Internet, and games. Anything else?”

“Well, a campground, a cattle ranch that is around 100 acres, the game store, and part ownership of company that produces game expansions. And also Gem Computers. I’m also on the advisory board for another company that publishes game adventures.” When she tried to ask, I simply said it was Becky and she nodded.

“Yeah, we talked about that earlier. You work with her?”

“Oh, we started that together. It originally started as something we did to publish some adventures I had made that did not sell. And it kind of expanded from there. We were living together at the time, and when that ended, I let her have it. I still write small adventures for her every year or so. Even though we are not together anymore, we are still close.”

She reached out and put her hand on the back of mine, and softly said she could still hear the sadness in my voice. “Thank you, Eileen. Mostly, it was that no matter how much we loved each other, we are simply so different it would never have lasted. She is really hard-driven, I am more laid back in my style of business. Also, she thrives in a fast-paced place like LA. I only tolerate it. Sure the money is good, but I actually hate living there. I have lived almost half my life in LA now, but I still consider this town here as my home.”

She nodded, and the waitress brought us our steaks. Eileen was surprised at the size of them, and I grinned and said it was the best steakhouse in town. “Just take what you do not eat, you can have it tomorrow. In fact, any scraps we cut off I take back to the ranch. Several of the hands have dogs, and I always have a bowl at the house I leave scraps in for them.”

She smiled and nodded, and admitted it was quite good. We continued to chat as we ate, and she admitted it was relaxing here, but rather slow. I said that compared to Vegas I was not surprised.

“Actually, I have only lived there for three years now. I got the job and moved there a few years ago, I’m from Fullerton originally. And most of us locals rarely go to The Strip. We have our own local places we go to, off on the side streets and away from the tourists. There are a lot of little casinos and places we go, that almost no tourists know about. About the only places I see outsiders at are places covered by the Damron or Gaia guides.”

“Damron or Gaia? What are those? I’ve never heard of them.”

“Oh, sorry. Those are kind of guidebooks like what AAA puts out, but for the gay and lesbian community. None of those kinds of places are on The Strip, but the books let those who are interested know where to find them. We see a fair amount of tourists at those, and some of the few places where tourists are really welcome. Most local places actually try to discourage the tourist crowd.”

“Well, you did hint that you are interested in girls also. So I should not be surprised. Can I ask, what is a gay or lesbian bar really like?”

“Oh, it kind of depends on the bar. You see, there are really three kinds. Most gay bars for men cater almost exclusively to a male based clientele. The same with most lesbian bars, they only cater to women. But you also have some that cater more to the lifestyle than a single gender, so both men and women are welcome. As for what are they like? Well, some are just about like any other bar. Go to have some drinks, dance, bring a date to or just relax after work. Then some are more like a pick-up place. You mostly go there if you are looking for a hook-up for the night or weekend.”

“OK, so not really unlike a singles bar for most people.”

“Pretty much. I’m not a regular or anything, but sometimes it is nice to go out to one and have a few drinks and dance. And the other gals do not take offense if all I want is a dance and not a bed partner at the end of the night. Some guys can be amazingly dense and not get the hint.”